Transcribe! History - version 8.31 Release Notes, released 3 Nov 2012

Transcribe! version 8.31 for Windows Mac and Linux.
Note that the Mac version requires OS 10.6 or later.
We are keeping 8.21.3 for Mac available for those who are
running earlier versions of Mac OS.
This update is mostly about fairly minor issues, but lots of them.
-- Export of compressed sound files (by popular request)
When exporting or recording sound files, you can now choose compressed
sound formats (instead of only offering uncompressed wav or aiff as we
did before). On Windows & Mac we use m4a, which means that on Windows
you will need to install QuickTime (it's a free download from Apple).
On Linux we default to Ogg Vorbis but this can be changed.
See Preferences - Export, for compression settings.
And see the FAQ for comments about why m4a rather than mp3.
-- Video Viewer : the "Zoom" menu is renamed as "View", and on it you
will find a new "Mirror" command which flips left-right. This can be
handy e.g. with saxophone or guitar, where it puts the instrument
and player's fingers the same way round as your own, as if you were
looking at yourself in a mirror.
-- Recent Files - when you select one but it doesn't exist, we remove
it from the Recent Files list.
-- You can now hold down Alt (on Windows or Linux) or Command (on Mac)
while dragging a text block, to constrain the drag to vertical or
horizontal only.
-- New command MarkerEditMostRecent "Edit the most recently created
or edited marker." (You'll have to create a keyboard shortcut for
it if you want to use it).
-- The "Speed Up" command:
- fixed glitch where it would stop briefly each time it went around.
- now works properly with "Playback loop delay" (Preferences).
- bug fixed : if you were already playing then SpeedUp would not
take immediate effect. Now it does.
- (Windows only) added <alt> keyboard shortcuts to the 4 spin
controls in the dialog.
- you can now pause and resume the speed up sequence (using the
Pause button in the lower toolbar, or the ',' key). Though the
use of any other command will still abandon the sequence.
-- You can now pause & resume any script without aborting it,
using the Pause button in the lower toolbar, or the ',' key).
Though the use of any other command will still abandon the script.
-- New command ScriptWaitLoops(int), makes the script wait until a
specified number of loops have been played. Can only be used in a
script.
-- If a transcription has a not-found sound file then if you drag-n-drop
(or actually open by any means) a sound file, Transcribe! offers the
option to import it into the current transcription rather than starting
a new transcription.
-- Export and Import Foot Pedal Commands (File menu).
These commands are very useful if you want to have different pedal
setups for different purposes. With these commands you can save
multiple different setups to files named e.g. "speech_pedals.txt" and
"music_pedals.txt" or whatever, and then switch between them by
importing the appropriate one.
Also, the Export & Import commands for shortcuts are no longer
directly on the File menu, instead they are now buttons in the
relevant dialog (e.g. "Keyboard Commands..." is on the File menu,
and if you select it then you will find "Export" and "Import"
buttons in the resulting dialog).
-- You can now save Fx settings with loops on the Misc page of the Fx
window. Press the Help button on that page for more info. This means
you can, e.g, have a loop button not only set the position and length
of the loop, but also the speed at which it is to be played (or the
volume, or any other Fx setting you want).
-- Improved (less cryptic) reporting of global keyboard shortcuts in
the "Keyboard Commands" dialog.
-- If you drag the splitter to hide the piano keyboard, save the
transcription, then later load into a window of a different size,
there was a tendency for the piano to partially reappear. Should
now be fixed.
-- As you may know, keyboard shortcuts don't work in the Fx window
due to the confusion this would cause, as the Fx window also uses
keystrokes for its own purposes. However by popular request I have
relented in the case of <spacebar> since this keystroke is not needed
in the Fx window, and it is one of the most commonly used keystrokes
for starting and stopping playback. So now, the spacebar can be used
in the Fx window : it will bring the current transcription window to
the front (like the <esc> key) and will start or pause playback in the
usual way. Note this does mean that you can't type a space in the "At"
and "Selected" boxes of the Misc page, but you don't need to.
-- When selecting which command to attach to a shortcut, you can now
double-click the listbox.
-- Export Split Sound File : there were various oddities that could
happen if you used explicitly named section markers to name the split
tracks, and if you used characters that are not allowed in filenames.
This should now be fixed, and we replace illegal characters with
underscores.
-- It has always been the case that tab/shift-tab activates the
next/previous text block, but would do nothing if there was not
already an active text block. Now, if there is no active text block,
tab/shift-tab will activate the text block after/before the playing,
or paused, or current point.
-- A section or measure marker with blank text now has an empty box
instead of no box.
-- Video Viewer : fixed bug where, when loading a second video, it
would sometimes get confused and end up with two viewers running, and
a failure to load the video.
-- Resetting bar numbering with e.g. "(99)" now works whether or not
"number measures continuously".
-- Marker auto subdivision: the default division option is now 4
instead of 2.
-- Shift-clicking a marker now extends the current selection to the
marker, and then shift-dragging naturally brings the selection with
it.
-- When Quitting : the "Do you want to save changes" dialog, if you
have multiple transcriptions with unsaved changes : there is now a
check box that says "Apply this choice to all remaining unsaved
transcriptions?".
-- On the Fx EQ page, the ranges for some of the preset instrument EQs
have been extended at the top end. You'll need to press the Defaults
button on that page to get the altered settings.
-- New commands which will place new markers at each end (hence "EE"
in the name) of the current selection. MarkerNewSectionEE,
MarkerNewMeasureEE and MarkerNewBeatEE. (You'll have to create
keyboard shortcuts if you want to use these).
-- Mac: The application is now signed with a Developer ID issued to
Seventh String by Apple. This is for the benefit of the OS 10.8
"Gatekeeper". In fact Transcribe! 8.21.3 has also been signed since
May 2012.
-- Mac: You can now select output devices in Preferences - Playback,
instead of having to use System Preferences.
-- Mac: bug fixed where opening a file from the "Media" section of
the File Open dialog would not work second time.
-- Mac: bug fixed where the File Open dialog would not show an
inserted CD.
-- Mac: on OS 10.7 and later you can now drag all 4 edges of the
application window, which is standard for these OS versions.
-- Mac: Record New Sound File now works better for selecting &
remembering your choice of input devices.
-- Mac: Copy & Paste now work in the At & Selected boxes of the Misc
page of the Fx window, which they didn't before.
-- Mac: the <enter> and <return> keys now both work to activate the
default button in a dialog.
-- Windows & Linux : there was some text and lines which would vanish
in the Fx window if you used "Accessibility Options" or "Themes" to
set a white-on-black display mode. This should now be fixed. Though
When you change your display settings, you may need to relaunch
Transcribe! to get the right colours.
-- Linux - Video Viewer: fixed bug where some long videos would
produce a "progress dialog out of range" GTK message.
-- Linux - Video Viewer : keyboard shortcuts for controlling playback
should now work in the Video Viewer window, as they already do on
Windows and Mac.
-- Linux playback : fixed bug where it leaked 2 sockets each time you
start & stop playback. This would mean that eventually you wouldn't
be able to start playback, and would have to relaunch Transcribe!
-- Linux playback: changed the default audio output device to
"autoaudiosink" but if the audio sink you specify isn't found,
Transcribe! will automatically try various alternatives before
giving up.
-- Linux: when specifying a GStreamer device for inputting or
outputting sound, some parameter types were not handled correctly.
They should be ok now.
-- Various other minor bugfixes and changes.